Our Mission & History

Our Founder, Father Thomas A. Judge 1924

I THIRST

Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity

The Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity is a congregation of Catholic priests and Brothers founded in 1929 by the American Vincentian priest, Reverend Thomas A. Judge. Our founder’s great devotion to the Trinity has led and guided the work we do, so much so we’ve become known to friends and benefactors as Trinity Missions and, our men, Trinity Missionaries.

Our missionaries work with the poor and abandoned wherever the need is greatest. Our main goal is the preservation of the faith among people who are spiritually neglected and abandoned, especially the poor.

You would have to travel far and often to meet every Trinity Missionary! We are across the United States – in the heart of the inner cities, on Native American reservations, and in the isolated towns of rural America. We also work in Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Honduras, and Haiti.

We are pastors and teachers, chaplains and counselors. We visit the sick and elderly and we feed the poor and homeless. Our priests and Brothers work in prisons, hospitals, and other institutions where people feel abandoned and alone. Today, through the I THIRST Initiative, the Missionary Servants seek to serve those who are afflicted by substance use disorders and their families.

Wherever we are, whatever we are doing, we share a common goal: to preach the love of God and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

History

For more than 90 years the Missionary Servants have provided support, respite and spiritual comfort for those individuals and families struggling with substance use disorders. The roots of this ministry were planted in the former St. Joseph Villa ( now the Trinity House Retreat Center) located at the Shrine of St. Joseph in Stirling, NJ, which provided treatment to alcoholic priests for more than 50 years.

In 1964, Fr. Fred Lawrence, ST, founded the Serenity Retreat League at the Trinity House in Stirling, as a way of offering spiritual support and encouragement to the families of alcoholics. Today the Missionary Servants seek to continue the tradition of aiding the families of the addicted as well as the individuals themselves through the I THIRST Initiative.